535 
SIEGE OF MINORCA, 1750. 
BY 
AN OFFICER WHO WAS PRESENT AT THE SIEGE. 
INTRODUCTION. 
This Journal of the Siege of Minorca in 1756 is given to the Regiment 
through the kindness of one deeply interested in its History and 
Records. 
No other detailed account of this siege is known to exist, but a 
general story of it is given in Beatson’s “ Naval and Military Memoirs 
of Great Britain,” and readers of this Journal are advised to study 
that work. 
The name of the Author of the Journal is not given, but there is 
little doubt that he was an Artillery Officer. This Journal and that of 
the Siege of Belleisle are evidently by the same man ; they are both 
in the same handwriting, identified as that of Lieutenant and Fire¬ 
worker Luke Forman 1 2 ,* as, however, he was not present at both 
sieges it is highly probable that he was the amanuensis of Benjamin 
Stehelin, 3 the only R.A. officer present at both, a man of good educa¬ 
tion and powers of observation. 
The maps used to illustrate the Journal are taken from one of those 
presented to the R.A. Institution by the widow of Major-General Sir 
John May, k.c.b., k.c.h., R.A. ; it is entitled, “ A Map of the Isle of 
Minorca geometrically surveyed by the Royal Engineers while it re¬ 
mained in the possession of the French during* the last War, and 
Digested by L. S. de la Rochette, M.DCCLXXX.” 
The manner in which Great Britain came into possession of Minorca 
is given by the Author in a short introduction to his Journal. 
The events that led up to tlie siege of 1756 may be shortly des¬ 
cribed by the following extracts from Beatson 
In October, 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was concluded ; 
by it the French naval power was so muck reduced as to be no longer 
formidable. The French at once began to re-build, both at home and^ 
in Sweden, their fleet, and soon had a strong one afloat again. 
Though, by the Treaty, peace existed in Europe, war continued" 
between Great Britain and France, both in North America and the East 
Indies, and the consequent irritation between the two nations grew to 
such a pitch that early in 1756 it was evident that a declared state of war 
could not long be avoided. The French avowed their intention of invad- 
1 No. 158 in “ Kane’s List.” 
2 No. 161 in “ Kane’s List.” ~ 
1°. YOL. xx, 
